1000 Level Courses

This course is designed for students with no previous knowledge of Arabic and focuses on developing proficiency in reading, writing, listening and speaking the standard Arabic language. It begins with learning of the script and phonology, and works rapidly into vocabulary and grammar by using short sentences and moving into texts of different lengths and topics. By the end of this course, students are expected to be able to read and understand short texts of Arabic and translate them from Arabic into English, and vice versa.

This course is designed for students with minimal previous knowledge of spoken and/or written Arabic and focuses on developing proficiency in reading, writing, listening and speaking the standard Arabic language. By the end of this course, students are expected to be able to read and understand short texts of Arabic and translate them from Arabic into English, and vice versa.

Course credit exclusions: AP/ARB 1000 6.00. Open to: Native speakers of Arabic dialects with no formal training in the Modern Standard Arabic, and readers of the Qur'an and Arabic script with no formal training in Arabic. Not open to: Speakers of Modern Standard Arabic. Notes: An authorization slip is required; it can be obtained at the Main Office of DLLL, Ross S 561, after the required written placement test.

This is an Introductory course for English speakers who have no knowledge of Chinese. Students are expected to learn to carry on simple everyday conversations in the national language and to read and write approximately 500 Chinese characters. Pattern drills are used primarily in addition to grammatical analysis. Note: Students whose native dialect is Cantonese are directed to AP/CH 3010 6.00.

This course presents three aspects of Modern Standard Chinese: pronunciation, grammar, and writing system. Lectures, classroom practice, audio tapes, and interactive computer programs. Pinyin (Chinese Romanization) is used in teaching approximately 500 characters by the end of the course. Note: This course prepares for entry into AP/CH 2000 6.00, AP/CH 2030 6.00, or with permission of the department, AP/CH 3000 6.00.

This course is designed for those who have little or no training in Classical Greek. In this course, students acquire the fundamentals of reading Classical Greek through practice with translation, vocabulary, grammar, syntax, composition, and pronunciation. At the end of this course, students are able to go on to AP/GK 2000 6.0, the second-year Classical Greek course at York University.

PREREQUISITE: None. No previous knowledge of the language is assumed. No one who has completed an upper-level university Classical Greek course may enroll in this course. No one may enroll in this course and an upper-level Classical Greek course simultaneously.

This course is an introduction to Modern Hebrew designed only for students with no previous knowledge of Hebrew. Classes are communicative, with a focus on conversational skills. Students will learn the Hebrew alphabet and acquire basic vocabulary and an elementary grasp of Hebrew grammar. New vocabulary and grammatical structures are practiced through speaking, listening, reading and writing. Students will use computers for additional practice and review of vocabulary and grammar taught in class.

PREREQUISITE: None. Not normally open to anyone ever having studied Hebrew before either formally or informally. Departmental Course Entry Authorization slip required PRIOR TO ENROLMENT.

This course is an introduction to standard written and spoken Hindi-Urdu designed for students with no formal training in or knowledge of Hindi or Urdu. Introduction to both Hindi and Urdu vocabulary, but only the Hindi (Nagari) script is used.

Note: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

A study of the classical world with a view to understanding the origin and evolution of some of the literary, philosophical and political ideals of ancient Greece and Rome. Materials for this study will be drawn from Greek and Roman literature in translation, with illustration from the plastic arts.

Note: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

The mythical narratives of the ancient Greeks and the Romans constitute a continuous tradition that extends from before the reach of history to the present day. Myths survive in literary texts and visual art because their narratives have continued proved compelling and fascinating in different languages, historical eras, and social contexts (the myths of Odysseus, Heracles, and Oedipus are just a few examples). Literature and art of all kinds have been inspired to retell and represent their stories, while the search for the meaning of mythic stories has informed and profoundly influenced a great range of intellectual disciplines including literary criticism, anthropology, and psychoanalysis. In these ways, myths have and continue to exercise a fundamental influence on western culture and, in consequence, even today they maintain a certain cosy familiarity. On the other hand, the historical contexts in which the Greeks and Romans told and retold these mythical narratives are to us in the twenty-first century culturally alien and unfamiliar.

The aim of the course is two-fold: insofar as Greek and Roman culture is fundamental to the development of western culture, students will achieve a deeper historical understanding of the latter; yet because the world of the Greeks and Romans is in many ways radically different to our own, students will develop the conceptual tools for comprehending another culture and so enhance their ability to understand and critique their own cultures. The course is also one of the Foundations courses and as such is intended to provide students with a solid grounding for undergraduate study by cultivating generally applicable and transferable skills; these include the development of clear and logical academic writing, critical and analytical skills for reading and understanding texts, constructive participation in group discussion and debate (in tutorials), and basic methods and techniques of research.

Note: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

A study of early Mesopotamian, Greek, Jewish and Christian literature (1) to understand its original meanings and (2) to explore its relevance to our search for personal ethical norms, images of female and male, models of the just society and conceptions of transcendent reality. The course aims (3) to teach students methods of literary criticism, textual interpretation, historical inquiry, conceptual analysis, and cross-cultural comparisons. ASSIGNMENTS: Four essays (25% each).

Note: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

The course explores two stages in European civilization -- the Middle Ages and the Renaissance -- to which our present politics, religion, intellectual and artistic culture owe much. We look for the themes, tensions, habits of thought, values and manias that link and distinguish these two eras. The Middle Ages began when Rome collapsed (ca. 500) and shaded slowly into the Renaissance (1350-1630), just after the Black Death swept through Europe. The Middle Ages were not "dark." Though turbulent and at first impoverished, they produced feudal kingdoms, Gothic cathedrals, and brilliant logical philosophy. In the first term we meet medieval hermits, saints, dragons, knights, crusaders, burghers, and assorted lovers, happy and unhappy. The Renaissance saw the beginnings of modernity emerge out of the medieval past. Great individual achievements blossomed in a world reshaped by commercial expansion, political consolidation and religious crisis. It was a time of cultural flux and growth, where novelty challenged tradition, and optimism vied with deep anxiety. In the second term, we encounter poets, storytellers, philosophers, sly politicians, acute scientists, and, again, men and women of deep faith. As a Foundations course, Humanities 1125 9.0 puts great stress on critical skills, and particularly on writing.

Note: This course has been approved in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies for general education credit (Humanities).

This course explores the interactions between Gods and humans in literature, art, and philosophy. We focus on critical questions, emotional struggles, and personal journeys that characterize interactions between humans and Gods. Special attention is given to the reasons why religious and secular people are interested in these interactions today.

Using texts, films, and diverse works of art, we personally, publicly, and critically engage in the richly living struggle for faith, certainty, and beauty in our everyday world. This course concentrates on four interdisciplinary themes: 1) the struggle to be good, 2) personal trials and transformations, 3) the challenge of the Enlightenment and 4) the cleaving to the Gods.

NOTE: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

This course addresses the ways in which diasporic Africans have responded to and resisted their enslaved and subordinated status in the Americas. Resistance is first addressed in relationship to slavery, but later in the course resistance is seen in a much broader context: in response to post-colonial and post-civil rights, and as an engagement of national, economic, cultural and social forces. Thus, resistance might be understood as a continuing legacy of black peoples' existence in the Americas. Resistance is, first, read in relationship to European domination in the Americas and, second, to national and other post-emancipation forms of domination which force us to think of resistance in increasingly more complex ways. The "anatomy of prejudices"-sexism, homophobia, class oppression, racism-come under scrutiny as the course attempts to articulate the libratory project. The course focuses, then, on the cultural experiences of African diasporic peoples, examining the issues raised through a close study of black cultures in the Caribbean, the United States and Canada. It critically engages the ways in which cultural practices and traditions have survived and been transformed in the context of black subordination. It addresses the aesthetic, religious and ethical practices that enable black people to survive and build "communities of resistance" and allow them both to carve out a space in the Americas they can call home and to contribute variously to the cultures of the region.

Note: This course has been approved in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies for general education credit.

Introduction to traditional East Asian civilization by examining daily life in 18th-century Peking and Edo (Tokyo), and their rural hinterland. Topics include the physical setting, social distinctions and occupations, arts and crafts, religion, literature and entertainment.

NOTE: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

This course begins by considering the look back into such ancient times when stories were reworked and transmitted for generations through oral culture, and orienting students to the emerging cultural identities of the ancient Greek and ancient Hebrews. For example we will study the documentary hypothesis which suggests that the Hebrew Bible is a composite work from several sources, and we will consider how our knowledge of "the Greeks" is often based on scant physical remains, fragmentary literary sources dependent on second and third hand authors, and is always interpretative. Students will be introduced to many kinds of literature which emerged in the ancient period: epic poetry, lyric poetry, fables and parables, dramatic works, philosophical and medical treatises and historical prose. We will want to engage in close readings of primary texts with a view to understanding key themes and ideas, historical, political, and social contexts, and religious beliefs and practices. Thus, along the way, we might consider parallels to, and influences from, even more ancient civilizations; highlight certain Greek gods and goddess and their festivals; and, consider the social status of women, or cultural differences between the Spartans and Athenians. We will always want to engage with the texts critically which will involve examining the perspectives of ancient authors, the use of art and literature for ideological ends, as well as our own assumptions about the past. In addition to excerpts from the Old and New Testament, we will engage with a number of Greek and Roman authors which will include many of the following: Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Aesop, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Pythagoras, Plato, Herodotus, Thucydides, Hippocrates, Livy, Virgil, Lucretius, Epicurus, Epictetus, Apuleius and Ovid. It was in the climate of the Roman world that the two major stands of Western thought, the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian, came together. After having spent some time on Archaic and Classical Greek writers, we will examine the adoption of Greek culture by the Romans who gave it their own personality. We will end the course with a look at the early Christian authors as they attempted to distinguish themselves both from the Law of the Jews and Greco-Roman polytheism.

Note: This course has been approved in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies for general education credit (Humanities).

This course examines the beliefs, doctrines and institutions that have constituted the Islamic traditions from the beginning of Islam until the present. While examining some of the most important primary sources that have emerged within Islamic traditions, particular attention is placed on the variety of interpretive strategies used by Muslim exegetes, theologians, legal scholars, Sufis, etc. in their approach to variety of issues related to the sacred texts, the Qur’an and the Hadith. Since Islamic traditions are also viewed as cultural constructs, the course also explores its different manifestations throughout the Muslim world and beyond. In line with that view, the course examines Islamic traditions in terms of its system (“Great Tradition”) and dynamics (“Little traditions”), which find expression in a wide scope of doctrines, interpretations, and concerns facing Muslims now and in the past.

REPRESENTATIVE READINGS: To be purchased at the University Bookstore: Frederic Denny, An Introduction to Islam. (A copy is available on the Library Reserve shelf). Course Kit (to be purchased at the University Bookstore, at the beginning of the fall and winter term respectively)

Note: This course has been approved in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies for general education credit (Humanities).

This course examines Indian culture, secular literary texts and other art forms (dance, drama, music, documentaries, cinema and folk arts) from ancient India to the present. In relation to the texts, class lectures and tutorials include background on different religious traditions, social structure, history and culture. Indian society is often presented as homogeneous and continuous, interrupted periodically by foreign intrusions. This course is based on the premise that, in fact, this society has always been a conflicted reality, that there have been, and continue to be, many “imagined” Indias. Through reading a variety of narratives from Indian and non-Indian sources, watching films and listening to music and guest lectures, we will examine questions such as the following: What have been the various imaginaries of Indian society? How have the borders among these imaginaries coexisted, contested or overlapped with each other? What changes and continuities over time do these narratives bring out? We will pursue these and similar questions in a roughly chronological order from the ancient to contemporary times. Course themes include: values, morals and hierarchical structures revealed in ancient folk tales; early literary voices of women; views of foreign travelers to India over the centuries; expressions of the sacred and the erotic; heterodox challenges to Hinduism; Indo-Islamic cultural heritage; the rise and impact of the British Raj; the emergence of the nationalist movement; influence of religious nationalism, independence and partition of India; women’s rights movement from 19th-21st century; voices of the marginalized in modern India – dalits (untouchables), women and homosexuals; diasporic writings; and changes and inequities in contemporary Indian society.

NOTE: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

The course examines selected biblical texts, their social and historical contexts, and selected current issues such as the goddess, role of women in religion, social critique, sexual ethics, spirituality and biblical interpretation.

NOTE: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

This course introduces the diversity of Buddhist ideas and practices in Asia. Exploring Buddhism as a living tradition, it focuses on the impact and interpretation of Buddhism in historical and contemporary cultures. After developing a background in basic Buddhist philosophy we explore Buddhism’s cultural impact in literature, art, ritual, ethics, economics, social interaction and politics.

Beginning with the biography of the Buddha and origins of Buddhism in ancient India, the course covers the development of Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana schools. The first semester will focus on the development of Buddhist ideas and their interpretation in contemporary practice in Southeast Asia (Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia or Laos), South Asia (India, Nepal, or Sri Lanka) and East Asia (China, Japan or Korea). The first semester's topics will include philosophical and narrative texts, art, archaeology, film and studies of ritual, including issues of monasticism and meditation. The second semester will explore ethnographic accounts of Buddhist life and contemporary issues, including discussions of magic, alchemy, gender and sexuality, democracy, nationalism and war.

Required Texts: Lopez, Donald S. The Story Of Buddhism : A Concise Guide To Its History And Teachings. 1st ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001; Harvey, Peter. An Introduction To Buddhism: Teachings, History, And Practices. Second Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013; Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. 3rd ed, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008; McDaniel, Justin Thomas. The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk Practicing Buddhism in Modern Thailand. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011; Rowe, Mark Michael. Bonds of the Dead: Temples, Burial, and the Transformation of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.

NOTE: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

Explores the nature of religious faith, religious language (myth and symbol) and clusters of religious beliefs through an examination of the primary texts of several major world religions. Methodologies for the study of religion will also be examined.

NOTE: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

This course introduces students to a variety of human religious experiences and traditions. This year we will explore the history, literature, practices and contemporary issues of the following religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese and Japanese traditions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We will study and critically analyze the sacred texts in translation and the various concepts of the lived traditions. As a Foundations course we will include the teaching in both lectures and tutorials of a variety of critical skills and basic research methodologies including: critical reading of primary and secondary sources forms of essay writing and referencing in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and critical thinking.

NOTE: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

This course looks at selected passages from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and their interpretative reflection in the western artistic tradition, including pictorial/representational art, music, literature, and cinema. The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is one of the most influential works of western literature. Over the course of the centuries it has been the subject of myriad interpretations. In addition to traditional sectarian and scholarly readings, the text has served as the inspiration for countless artistic creations, ranging from novels, plays, short stories, paintings, and sculptures, to operas, oratorios, movies, and television shows (including The Simpsons!). Each one of these representations and retellings of these time-worn tales is also an interpretation, reflecting the specific perspective of the author/creator. In this course, we will read selected biblical stories and compare them to selected examples of their re-imagined and reinterpreted versions. The aims of the course are to teach first-year students (1) how to read texts in their broadest sense, (2) how to interpret texts, (3) how to compare differing versions of the same tale/tradition, (4) how to identify and comprehend the ideology and/or theology underlying a text, (5) how to read different types of texts, and (6) how to appreciate various types of artistic creations whose study and enjoyment may be new to them. In addition, the wide range of artistic creations examined in this course serves to introduce students to the temporal and genre-based wealth of the western cultural tradition.

EVALUATION: 10% Participation grade (based on attendance and participation in tutorial sections); 20% First term paper; 20% Second term paper; 20% Mid-year exam; 30% Final exam. (subject to change)

NOTE: Successful completion of this course fulfils General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

This is an introductory course. It offers a general overview of the Christian tradition from its inception to the present day. From its beginnings, Christianity has been inextricably intertwined with the societies and cultures surrounding it. The focus of this course is the interaction of the Christian tradition with the political, social and cultural environments with which it has come in contact as it has spread around the globe. The lives and thought of influential Christians, both men and women, as well as significant events, movements and texts are examined. Particular attention is paid to the diversity of Christian beliefs and practices resulting from those interactions.

This course examines Christianity as a socio-historical phenomenon. It explores with the tools of the academic study of religion the movements, texts, beliefs and practices of this religious tradition and the factors and forces shaping them from its beginnings to the present day.

This Foundations course focuses on the following critical skills:

Critical reading of primary and secondary texts
Critical thinking: examining the complex intersection of factors shaping the texts, beliefs, practices and debates within Christianity, and our own assumptions about them
Writing skills: planning, organizing, writing and documenting an academic essay
Presentation skills: planning, preparing and executing a presentation
Introduction to the terms and concepts related to the academic study of religion

NOTE: Successful completion of this course fulfills General Education requirements in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

That Jews are distinct from non-Jews is a basic axiom of Jewish thought and literature and a seemingly obvious lesson of Jewish history. But what is the basis of this distinction: biological, psychological, sociological, religious, or some combination of the above? And in what ways have Jewish beliefs, teachings, and practices interacted with ideas, rituals, or habits of daily life associated with diverse non-Jewish environments? This course seeks answers to these and related questions by exploring the relationship of Jews and their neighbours from biblical through contemporary times. In so doing, it offers a case study in processes of religious, cultural, and social interchange and in the types of creative influences or mutual frictions and rivalries (sometimes culminating in violence) that such processes can yield.

The course proceeds chronologically, studying the relationship between Jews and their neighbours in biblical times, the Second temple period, the Hellenistic world, the rabbinic period, the realms of medieval Islam and Christendom, early modern and modern Europe and the Ottoman Empire and modern contemporary North America and Israel. Topics considered may include the emergence of Judaism, the challenge of Greco-Roman culture, Jewish sectarianism, and medieval Jewish approaches to Islam and Christianity, nineteenth-century religious cross-currents, varieties of Zionism, the Holocaust, Jewish feminism, and dilemmas in contemporary Jewish life.

The course seeks to develop a variety of skills in the areas of critical thinking, reading, and writing. It does this in part through its emphasis on interactive analysis of original historical and literary documents (all read in English translation).

EVALUATION: Preparation of reading assignments in advance; two essays (40%); three tests (45%); class work (15%).

TEXTS: A Course Kit; Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World.

Basics of spoken Japanese, with strong emphasis on immediate practical usefulness in everyday situations, the two kana syllabaries, approximately 150 Kanji (Sino-Japanese characters) and elementary reading are covered. Simple sentence grammar is focused on. No previous knowledge of the language is assumed.

The course focuses on basic literacy, grammar and conversation. New vocabulary and grammatical structures are practiced through speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students are introduced to aspects of Yiddish culture through film and music.

PREREQUISITE: None. This course is an introduction to Yiddish designed for students with no previous knowledge of the language, no formal training in the language and with little family background, if any. Department Course Entry Authorization slip required PRIOR TO ENROLLMENT.